Hg expands Anthropic partnership to deploy agentic AI across portfolio

Private equity firm Hg is expanding its relationship with artificial intelligence company Anthropic as it seeks to deploy agentic AI capabilities across its portfolio and accelerate value creation at its software and services businesses.

The new strategic initiative will see Hg Catalyst, the firm’s dedicated AI product incubator and broader in-house AI team, work directly with Anthropic to introduce Claude’s agentic capabilities across portfolio companies.

Hg said the initiative builds on a relationship with Anthropic that began in early 2024. The firm said its portfolio currently has more than 1,600 live AI projects, representing over $260 million in budgeted EBITDA impact, a figure that has increased fivefold since the partnership began.

The expanded collaboration will focus on moving beyond experimentation with AI towards deploying agentic systems capable of performing tasks and operating within business workflows. Hg said the combination of its portfolio companies’ industry-specific data, systems and workflows with Anthropic’s AI capabilities could create opportunities for measurable operational improvements.

Hg has been investing in AI capabilities for about a decade and has developed a dedicated value creation function focused on helping its portfolio companies incorporate the technology into their products and operations.

The firm said AI-driven product development is already featuring in several portfolio company exits. Quantios, a software provider to the trust and corporate services sector, launched its first agentic AI product in March with support from Hg Catalyst before being sold by Hg to Vista Equity Partners.

Other examples cited by Hg include GTreasury, which was acquired by Ripple, and Intelerad, which was acquired by GE HealthCare. Hg said these transactions demonstrate the increasing importance of product-level AI capabilities to strategic and financial buyers.

Steve Batchelor and JB Brian, co-CEOs of Hg, said the firm had positioned itself early around agentic AI and that its relationship with Anthropic would give portfolio companies access to developments in the technology as the software sector evolves.

Guillaume Princen, head of international, digital native businesses at Anthropic, said Claude would provide Hg’s portfolio with access to agentic AI while maintaining safeguards intended to support its use in critical business workflows.

The expanded partnership forms part of Hg’s wider value creation strategy as the private equity firm seeks to use AI to improve the performance and competitiveness of its portfolio companies.

Hg currently has more than $110bn in assets under management and a portfolio of around 60 businesses, according to the firm. Its portfolio companies have aggregate enterprise value of more than $195bn and employ more than 140,000 people.